In Which Jeff is a Kitten
by ournoisyhearts
Summary: Jeff somehow gets turned into a kitten, and Nick takes care of him. Platonic Niff. Fill for a prompt on tumblr.


**This was written for an anonymous prompt on tumblr: Jeff somehow gets turned into a kitten and Nick takes care of him.**

* * *

"Jeff!" Nick hollers, bursting through the door to their shared dorm in a cloud of sparkly dust. His blazer is absolutely coated in glitter, the tiny bits stuck into every possibly crook of his body, and he's _pissed._ He reaches up and ruffles his hair in annoyance, more glitter fluttering out and to the ground, where it lands in a scattered pile about his feet. "I am going to _kill _you—"

Instead of a reply, he is met with an empty room and a pathetic _meow_ filtering over from somewhere in the corner.

Nick's eyes bulge.

"He got a _cat?_" he mutters under his breath, stepping further into the room and shaking off his glitter-covered blazer, abandoning it at the end of his bed. Jeff is nowhere to be seen, but yes, that is mostly definitely a tiny, purring kitten that is hesitantly stepping out from beneath one of the desks by the window. Nick sends the offending animal the best glare he can muster before brushing some more glitter from the back of his neck and dropping onto the edge of his bed with a sigh.

_Jeff is so dead, _Nick can't help thinking, but then there is a cat jumping up onto the bed next to him and nudging at his thigh with the top of its head.

"What do you want?" Nick grumbles, and the cat does it again before looking up at him with the most defeated look he's ever seen. He didn't think animals could even manage such a look.

The kitten _meows_ softly, then rubs itself against Nick's leg as if it's trying to tell him something.

"Seriously, what?" Nick demands. "I really don't give a crap about you, you're Jeff's problem."

Okay, so maybe Nick isn't much of an animal person.

Can you blame him, really?

The cat blinks up at him, then turns away, its tail nearly whipping Nick in the face as it hops down off the bed and pads over to his dresser, where it shamelessly proceeds to knock over his bottle of cologne as it wheedles its way between the picture frames that rest there.

"What are you _doing?_" Nick huffs. The cat finally stops and nudges its head against one of the picture frames, and Nick groans, ignoring the wide eyes the animal is sending his way. "Get down from there before you break something."

He stands up and makes his way over to the dresser, reaching out to pull the kitten away from his (albeit few) breakables, when the cat suddenly jerks its head away and hisses at him, pressing more forcefully against the picture frame at its side. Nick snaps his hands away before the animal can do something stupid like bite or _scratch _him (god, he hates cats), and rolls his eyes before looking down at the picture that the kitten seems to have gotten so attached to.

It's—what a surprise—a photo of he and Jeff from the previous summer, the two of them screaming their lungs out on some roller coaster at Six Flags. Jeff had insisted they pay the ridiculous amount of money for the photo, as a "souvenir," and of course Nick had given in, because he's really never been able to say no to Jeff.

The kitten is scratching its paw weakly against the frame, and Nick is about to yank it away so that it stops ruining his things when something else in the picture catches his attention.

Jeff is wearing his favorite blue t-shirt—one that happens to sport a giant picture of a _cat _on the front of it—and the cat looks exactly like the one in front of Nick at this very moment.

Nick blinks.

"_Jeff?_" he squeaks out, and the kitten—no, _Jeff_—_meows _extra loud, dancing around a bit on its feet. Meanwhile, Nick's face goes so white that he's pretty sure he's about to pass out.

"What the hell did you do?" he hisses, but Jeff ignores him, jumping down from the dresser and wandering his way back over to Nick's bed, where he curls up happily on top of Nick's pillow. "Dude, get off of that! I don't wanna be inhaling your stupid fur in my sleep."

Jeff just fucking _purrs, _settling himself into a tiny ball, and Nick resists the urge to throw something at him, now that he knows this dumb cat is actually his best friend in an extremely fragile state.

(He'll just make up for it and throw something at him later.)

"I guess I'm off to buy you cat food and shit," Nick mumbles. Jeff _meows _in agreement. "Don't destroy anything while I'm gone, yeah?"

He swears he sees one of Jeff's eyes slit open, a wicked twinkle shining in Nick's direction.

* * *

By Saturday night, Jeff is still (rather unfortunately), a cat.

And Nick has had it up to _here_ with him.

Not only did he have to go out and blow his monthly allowance on cat food and a litter box, but Jeff is a clingy little fucker and refuses to leave Nick's side whenever he's in the room. As of late, Nick has been trying (note: _trying_) to focus on some sci-fi movie that's playing on the TV screen in front of him, but Jeff-the-moronic-cat keeps shifting around in his lap and _purring _noisily, his head jostling Nick's arm every few seconds.

"For the love of god, would you sit still?" Nick mumbles. Jeff _meows_ in response and settles back down again, though his tail keeps _swishing_ at Nick's side.

"I can't wait until you're human again so I don't feel so bad about causing you bodily harm," Nick mutters under his breath.

Jeff nips at his wrist in warning.

* * *

When Nick jolts awake the following morning, there is something quite big and un-catlike in his bed.

He blinks the sleep from his eyes and makes an effort to roll over, but there is an arm pinning him in place—a tan, hair-dusted arm, very human-looking in nature, and the situation finally sinks in, because Nick's eyes widen and he pushes the arm off to bolt up into a sitting position.

"Jeff!" he cries.

The blonde shoots awake, his hair a tangled mess on his forehead as he scrambles upwards, and his mouth opens as if he is going to speak before he seems to realize something.

"Oh, thank _fuck,_" Jeff breathes out.

Nick gives him a moment to adjust, then picks up the pillow that is resting behind him and whacks Jeff unceremoniously in the face with it.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Jeff grumbles.

"First of all, it took me three different showers to remove all traces of glitter from my body," Nick states. "And second, maybe because you had to go and get yourself turned into a _cat?_ Seriously, dude, how did that even happen?"

Jeff's lower lip extends into a pout (and no, it is not adorable whatsoever) and he drops his chin to his chest, staring down at his lap.

"I don't _know!_ I'm sorry, okay? Can you please stop being mad at me now? I mean, I get that you hated me while I was a cat, 'cause you hate cats, but now I'm human again and I really hate when you're mad at me—"

Nick sighs and interrupts his friend mid-ramble. "I could never _hate _you, Jeff. Even though you are a pain in my ass."

Jeff blinks over at Nick through his bangs, mumbles, "'m sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Nick replies, then opens his arms and beckons for his best friend to come closer. "Now get over here, and let's hug it out."


End file.
